Garment hanger



Oct. 8, 1957 l 1'. HARRISON ET AL 2,808,942

GARMENT HANGER Filed Sept. 18. 1956 INVENToRs" 'rf/oms #MR/.som @emr f curro/v0 United States Patent O GARMENT HANGER Thomas Harrison, Moosic, Pa., and Robert J. Clifford, Madison, N. J.

This invention relates to garment hangers, and particularly to a new and useful garment hanger of the collapsible type, adapted for a variety of applications.

The garment hanger has become an integral part of our way of life. We use it in our home, and we take it on trips. It follows us wherever we go to serve its intended function of keeping clothing neat and orderly. Yet, useful as it is, the conventional garment hanger possesses certain disadvantages. For example,V if no hanger bars or hooks are available in closets or on Walls, great diiiiculty is found in trying to properly suspend the hanger. And in automobiles, the conventional hanger becomes useless if special hooks or portable attachments are not made available.

In addition, it is almost common knowledge that the present day wire hanger sometimes produces thin-line creases in the shoulders of coats and dresses due to the inadequacy of the supporting surface.

And, of course, a garment hanger of a unified rigid structure is rather unwieldy to handle and pack away.

With the above conditions in mind, it is the basic objective of the present invention to provide an improved garment hanger.

It is another objective of this invention to provide a garment hanger having a unique suspending structure adapted for suspending the hanger from a door or automobile Window at the users option.

A further object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger which is collapsible.

Another object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger composed of a plurality of separate nested hangers adapted for use in closely confined quarters.

Another object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger having contoured suspending arms to prevent the creasing or wrinkling of clothing carried thereby.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a garment hanger which is compact, structurally strong, easy to manufacture, and inexpensive.

These objects, together with other objectives and advantages to be derived from the present invention, will at once become apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the present garment hanger showing its novel suspending structure and illustrating a plurality of separate hangers in nested relationship.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of one of the sepa-r rate hangers of Fig. 1 shown with part of the suspending arms broken away.

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of the separate hangers of Fig. l showing the suspending arms thereof in a collapsed position.

Referring to the drawings, only one of the separate hangers will be described in detail since all are identical in structure. As shown, each hanger consists of a pair of contoured arms and 11 which arms are preferably 2,808,942 `Patented Oct. 8, 1957 ICC formed of a light-weight metal or plastic and which are hingedly connected together by a pin-12. The pin 12 is anchored in the free end of one leg 13 of a hanger bracket B.

The bracket B, which is adapted to receive and support in nested fashion a similar bracket of another hanger, consists of a pair of parallel spaced legs 13 and 14 integrally connected together along the top edges thereof by a cross-bar 15. The leg 13 is provided, by means of stamping or other suitable forming means, with a pair of opposed channels 16 and 17. The portion of leg 13 between the formed channels 16 and 17 is bent rearwardly to form a second crossbar 18 and is anchored to the leg 14 by means of soldering-or welding.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, it will'be seen that the end portions of the arms 10 and 11 carry angle members 19 depending downwardly therefrom, so that a removable bar 20 may be conveniently supported thereby for the purpose of carrying trousers, skirts, or the like.

For supporting the nested hangers from a conventional door or an automobile window,`a suspending bracket 21 is provided. This bracket is separable from the brackets B and may be provided in various sizes depending upon its desired usage. As shown in Fig. l, the bracket 21 `consists simply of a pair of opposed parallel legs 22 and opposed channel members 25 which are similar in structure and relationship to the channels 16 and 17 on the hanger brackets B. Apertures 26 and 27 are provided lin the legs 22 and 23 for a purpose to be described below.

Operation While the manner of use of the present garment hanger is quite self-evident from the above detailed description of its various parts and their relationship to one another, a brief description of its mode of use will now be given for the sake of clarity and completeness.

If it is desired to ksuspend the hanger from a door, the suspending bracket 21 may be placed on the top edge surface of an open door'with the arm 24 resting thereupon and with the leg 22 bearing against one vertical surface of the door and the leg 23 bearing against the opposed vertical surface. If it is desired to suspend the hanger from an automobile window, an alternate suspending bracket 21 of the proper dimensions may be used.

Next, one of the separate hangers described above may be supported from the bracket 21 by slidably inserting the leg 14 of the hanger bracket B into the opposed channel members 25 of said bracket 21. Then, the arms 10 and 11 of said hanger may be spread apart and the removable bar 20 inserted therebetween so asto rest upon the angle members 19. It willY be noted that no` special locking mechanism is needed formaintaining the arms 10 and 11 in their outstretched position other than the bar 21 therebetween, for any tendency of said arms to collapse is prevented thereby. v

If it is desired to hang more than one garment, a sec,- ond hanger may be attached to the irst hanger by slidably inserting its leg 14 into the opposed channels 16 and 17 on the leg 13 of said first hanger bracket B. And this convenient nesting of hangers may be repeated for any reasonable number of hangers which one desires to support in this manner. f

If it is desired, the suspending bracket 21 may be fixedly attached to a wall or other surface by means of nails or screws for which the apertures Y26 and 27 are provided, as shown in Fig. 1. v

iently disassembled by dismantling the nested relationship thereof and removing the bar 20 from between the arms l and 11, so that said arms` may befolded downwardly, asin Fig. 3, to conserve space. From the above description, it is seen that a novel and extremely useful garment hanger is provided by the present invention which is easy to use, simple in construction and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. In view of its unique nesting feature, its success on the market is virtually guaranteed. No longer need one twist the hooks of Wire hangers to suspend the hanger from a door in the absence of closet cross-bars or wall hooks. Nor need one lay his clothing on an automobile seat, only to become wrinkled and creased in the absence of special attachments for accommodating a hanger in the car, And no longer need one be concerned With shoulder creases produced by the conventional Wire hanger.

While the above description of the present invention has been limited to the above-described preferred emL bodiment, variations thereofare possible Without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is to be understood, therefore, that the invention'is not to be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but rather only to the inventive concept as defined by the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A garment hanger comprising; a U-shaped hangersupporting bracket having a pair of opposed channel members on one of its surfaces; and a plurality of clothessupporting hangers detachably attached to said bracket, each of said hangers comprising, a bracket member having a tongue-like leg adapted to be slidably received by said opposed channel members, a pair of clothes-supporting arms pivotally carried by `said bracket member, a removable cross-bar supported by and between the ends of said arms, andV a pair of opposed channel members on said bracket member for detachablyreceiving and supporting the bracket member leg of another clothes-supporting hanger. n v

References Citedin the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 338,288 Normandy Mar. 23, 1886 1,462,067 McKenna July 17, 1923 1,550,634 Polkko Aug. 18, 1925 1,760,290 Tammarazzo May 27, 1930 1,830,979 Borges Nov. 10, 1931 2,255,973v Hoobler Sept. 16, 1941 '2,391,661 Watkins Dec. 25, 1945 2,436,314 Lesavoy Feb. 17, 1948 2,447,128 uLogan Aug. 17, 1948 2,743,075 Johnson Apr. 24, 1956 

